Basic level

Beginner's steps

To start editing a page, just click the 'Edit' button on the top of the page (right next to the search box).

On the editing page there are three main zones - the formatting toolbar, the content space and the saving toolbar.

The formatting toolbar will help you format your page in a few clicks - change the looks of the text, add an image, add a link to another article or to another website and so on.

The content space is where the main action takes place - there you write the actual page content.

The saving toolbar is where you finish your job - enter the edit summary and save the page or, if you're not sure if it looks how you intented it to look, view the page without actually saving it.

You can also see what changes you've brought to the page in comparison to the current revision by clicking 'Show changes' and mark your edit as a minor one to show that not much has been changed by ticking the 'This is a minor edit' box.

Links

To add a link to the page, simply write [[ArticleName]], of course replacing ArticleName with the actual name of the article you're linking to. It can also be done clicking the Internal link button on the formatting toolbar.

If the word you wish to turn into a link differs from the article name, the formula is a little different: [[ArticleName|linkname]], where linkname is the word you turn into a link.

To add an external link, write [url Linkname], where url is the URL to the page you're linking to and Linkname is the name of the link (the name can be blank, in that case you simply get this: [1]). It can also be done using the External link button on the formatting toolbar.

Creating a new article

To create a new article, follow these steps:

Enter the desired name of the article in the search box on the top

Click 'Go'

On the results page, click the red link in the 'Create the page' sentence.

You will see the page editing dialogue where you can create the desired page.

Inserting images

To insert an image, write [[File:Imagename.extension]] (replace Imagename with actual image name and extension with actual image extension). Example:

Images have parameters that let you control how they will appear on a page. These parameters are separated with a pipe (|). A short description of the main parameters:

To insert an image thumbnail, add the thumb parameter. By default, the thumbnail is aligned right.

To change the alignment of an image, add right or left as a parameter.

To resize an image, add its size in pixels as a parameter. Example: [[File:Example.jpg|80px]]

To add a caption to an image, write the whole caption as a parameter. If the image isn't a thumbnail, the caption will be shown as a tooltip. Example: [[File:Example.jpg|Example caption]]

To add alt text to an image, add the following: alt=Alt text goes here. Alt text will be shown instead of the image if the image isn't yet loaded or if the user has disabled images in their browser.

Namespaces

Not all wiki pages are articles about Unreal Software and its products. There are many other very different articles such as wiki documentation articles (like this one), template pages, user pages, discussion pages and so on. To differ all those pages there are namespaces.

You may have noticed that this page has the Help namespace. It means this page is an internal documentation page made to help users on different matters inside this wiki, in this case - to tell them how to correctly edit pages.

The namespaces are quite self-explanatory, but despite that fact below is a table of namespaces.

Namespace

Purpose

Main (no prefix)

General articles

Talk:

General article discussion

Help:

Wiki documentation

Template:

Template pages

Special:

System pages

Unreal Software English Wiki:

Wiki-related pages

File:

Files

Category:

Article categories

MediaWiki:

MediaWiki engine pages

Templates

Not always one should write page content manually. Some general details on many pages, for the sake of comfort, are turned into templates - quickly insertable elements. Template pages have their own namespace (Template:).

To insert a template, write the following:

{{template}}

Replace template with actual template name (ex. {{stub}})

To add something to a template page without actually including it into the template, surround it with the <noinclude></noinclude> tags.

To select the part of a template page that will only be included in that template, surround it with the <includeonly></includeonly> tags.

Templates have variables you can operate with. For example, the {{main}} template has one unnamed variable - the main page name. To enter a variable in a template, the following construction is used:

{{template|var}}

Replace template and var with actual template name and variable respectively.

The variables in a template can also have names to ease the understanding of what's what. Example:

{{template
|foo=Foo
|bar=Bar
}}

To concatenate (insert) a variable ON the template page:

If the variable is unnamed - {{{1}}}, {{{2}}} etc.

If the variable has a name - {{{foo}}}, {{{bar}}} etc.

HTML

Some HTML tags are also allowed on wiki pages. Below is a list of tags allowed for use with a very short description. For a more detailed documentation please visit various other sites offering detailed description of HTML tags - you won't be needing them unless you're doing a major project/article.

Conclusion

Now, after reading through (hopefully) this guide, you should know most of the things needed to know for an editor to create and edit pages. The Unreal Software English Wiki community wishes you to become one among the best, if not the best on this wiki. Good luck!

See also

Some other links that may prove useful when editing or creating articles: